a budding writer

my 11 yr old nephew got his first published story- - high-five josh!

what's kaylen (not) reading?

i gave up on my book- - the post-american world. i spent more time on google trying to get caught up on history & politics than reading the actual book. from time to time, i will try to get back to it...but i have to take a break before it crushes my self-esteem.

moving on to the god delusion. similarly, i know a whole lot of nothing about religion so i will be googling again and asking poor adam lots of questions.

come back in a few weeks, there will likely be an update that reads - - i gave up on my book the god delusion.

google

did you know that google secretly rules the world? it's true.

they have been entertaining me all week with sesame street character logos. it makes me smile.

pb&j

we were playing peanut butter sandwich. i was the peanut butter. the pillows were the bread.

he pretends to eat the pillows and i yell 'don't eat me, don't eat me!'. then he gets that deep gut giggle.

tonight though, he missed the bread. and bit the peanut butter instead.

after my shriek, i told him to say he was sorry.

instead i got...

you hurt my mouth, mommy
oh really? how?
when i bit you, your back hurt me. say you are sorry.
uh, ok, i am sorry.
it's ok, mommy. accidents happen.

and off he went. no apology to the peanut butter.

weekend

i raked all weekend. swear. i have blisters to prove it. and brody, well he demolished my perfectly piled piles of leaves all weekend.

it was beautiful weather and we were thankful to not be sick for once.

after bagging a few piles of leaves, my neighbor came by to tell me i had the wrong bags. i'm a leaf rookie. thank god he told me. so off we went to buy the right kind.

then he came back by to cut up a huge limb that had broken off my tree. i couldn't even move it. it would have lived in our yard forever.

then i heard a loud noise and looked out the window, he was cleaning out my gutters with this loud vacuum gutter thing. the whole house.

he came back with a leaf blower and blew the leaves off my driveway, sidewalk and back porch.

and back again with this hose thing to clean the mud off my sidewalk from the gutter cleaning.

for real. i took his pic for proof.

he says he loves being outside. but you knooooow he is escaping from his wife. either way, i am thankful for him.

ps- ignore the strange multi-colored deck, it's being demolished soon. stop judging.

pps- does anyone know how to demolish a deck?

too tight

i can't stop eating. mostly candy and chocolate. and hot cocoa.
this morning i had to suck in to button my jeans. then i had to do a little dance around to loosen them up.
i was determined to stop eating candy today. and to start working out again.
then i got to work and my friend gave me a donut. a chocolate donut.
and i ate it.
as i was walking to a meeting i thought again, my pants are too tight.
then i looked down and had donut icing on my boob.
a harsh reminder of why my pants are too tight.

kitty

i just heard...

kitty, come here, i am going to shoot you. ok? ok, kitty? i am going to shoot you.

then i heard...

you ok, kitty? you ok? lay down, i am going to sit on you.

then i heard...

mooooommmm! the kitty ran away!

wonder why.

sugar

uh, i think maybe my niece, daisy boo, had too many sweets. woah.

crash

i finally broke down today. my friends say that i am strong. my sister says i am stubborn. i am somewhere in the middle.

i never break down.

after 3 weekends in a row of being sick. very sick. i finally broke down.

in the middle of target.

i just needed laundry detergent. simple.

brody isn't allowed to walk beside me in the store bc he will take off. he has to sit in the cart, hold onto the cart with his fingers or help push it.

today though, independent brody wanted to push it without my help. 2 problems. first, the cart is too heavy for him. second, he had his feet on the lower rack rather than the ground.

i tried to help push. he would scream. i tried to explain he cannot push the cart without his feet on the ground. he would yell.

i backed up knowing he would ask for my help. he didn't.

i turned my head for a second. turned back to see him running with the cart. then saw a girl headed his way.

and boom.

yep, he ran her down.

i apologized. sincerely. i was indeed sorry that my child just crashed into the poor girl.

she was pissed. pissed.

hang head in shame. walk away. and i broke. in the paper towel aisle. i should have been mad. brody should have gotten in trouble. but i couldn't stop crying.

and then sweet brody told me he loved me.

and he never did get in trouble. smart kid.

home

this makes me want to move home. remind me why i am in kc?

jumps

you would think the stitches on his forehead would stop him from jumping. nope.